“Why not just explain to her?”

“This isn’t the type of girl who would date an ex-con, Maddox.”

His brother set his hands on his hips as though he’d argue, but ultimately dropped them and shrugged. “That was my concern in the first place. Anyway, you know her better than I do,” he said and allowed himself to be distracted by the football game.

“Who are you going to give your gingerbread house to, Mommy?” Everly asked.

Harper blinked, pulling herself out of the well of her own thoughts. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said as she wiped a bit of frosting from her daughter’s pug nose. “Maybe Aunt Karoline has a neighbor she’d like me to give it to.”

“I’m going to keep mine,” Piper announced.

“That’s fine.” Karoline was adding “snow” to her front yard and had, of course, made the most elaborate creation of the six of them. She’d used melted suckers to form stained-glass windows, which looked beautiful. When the girls saw what she was doing, they’d tried to copy hers, but theirs hadn’t turned out quite so well. Neither had Terrance’s. His was probably the worst. Karoline was forcing him to participate, since this was “family time,” but his heart clearly wasn’t in it.

Fortunately, Harper had known better than to attempt anything too tricky, going on so little sleep. She’d kept hers small and simple with a “thatched” roof made of Frosted Mini-Wheats, a path through the yard made of crushed Life Savers, peppermint sticks for a handrail and a cute gingerbread man stepping out of the door.

“Yours is so pretty, Aunt Karoline,” Everly gushed.

Harper hid a smile when Karoline thanked her. Her sister was driven to be the best and do the best no matter what challenge she was taking on, so Karoline’s had turned out like a cathedral, and the girls’ had turned out like something occupied by the Three Little Pigs. One breath from the Big Bad Wolf and down they’d go. But they were proud of them, and that was all that mattered. Harper’s was somewhere in between—more like a bungalow than a cathedral.

“I’m going to give mine to a homeless person,” Everly announced. “So they get something for Christmas.”

“That’s very nice of you, Everly,” Harper said.

Amanda and Miranda both picked friends to be the recipients of theirs, and Terrance said his wife could do whatever she wanted with his.

Harper doubted his would be leaving the house. Karoline would never want to be associated with something that sloppy. He probably could’ve done better if he’d been truly interested, but Harper kept seeing him try to catch a glimpse of the college playoff game on TV in the other room.